Albrecht Muth, courtesy of Georgetown Patch

Even though Albrecht Muth was cleared in December as mentally fit to stand trial in the death of his wife, Viola Drath, the judge who made that ruling said today he is unsure whether Muth can go ahead with plans to represent himself.

Muth, who still claims he is an Iraqi army general in good standing and that Drath’s death was actually the work of Iranian spies, is due to go to trial on March 25. But he has been on a hunger strike since December 20 and was hospitalized on January 21, and upon hearing that, Judge Russell F. Canan of D.C. Superior Court expressed some doubts about whether Muth is up to the challenge of mounting a criminal defense in a first-degree homicide case, The Washington Pot reports.

And today’s hearing, like everything else in the case of Drath’s death, was nothing short of bizarre:

Wednesday’s hearing was unusual; Muth was not present, but he was patched into the proceedings by telephone from his hospital bed at United Medical Center.

Canan leaned over the bench when he spoke to be sure Muth could hear him. And a courtroom employee held the speaker phone up to the microphone so participants in the courtroom could hear Muth. When attorneys and prosecutors spoke, they walked up to the bench and nearly shouted into the phone each time they made an argument.

Canan added that he would reappoint the lawyers Muth dismissed last year, though Muth resisted, while prosecutors said that the hunger strike was just a delay tactic.